Schedule your 3rd COVID dose on CoWIN; vaccination begins tomorrow

As per the details shared by the government last month, all frontline and healthcare workers, along with the 60-plus population with comorbidities will be eligible for the additional jab.

Moneycontrol News

January 09, 2022 / 07:21 IST

COVID-19 vaccine (Representational image)

The feature to book online slots for a "precautionary dose" of COVID-19 vaccine, through the government's CoWIN platform, was enabled on January 8.

The precautionary dose, which will be the third dose of an approved COVID-19 vaccine, will be administered from January 10 onwards.

"The feature for online appointments for Precaution Dose for HCWs/FLWs and Citizens (60+) is now live on Co-WIN. To book an appointment, please visit http://cowin.gov.in," tweeted IAS officer Vikas Sheel, who is the Mission Director of Centre's National Health Mission.

The feature for online appointments for Precaution Dose for HCWs/FLWs and Citizens (60+) is now live on Co-WIN. To book an appointment, please visit https://t.co/ZC467h2n3a @mansukhmandviya @MoHFW_INDIA @PIB_India @rssharma3 #LargestVaccineDrive
— Vikas Sheel (@iamvikassheel) January 8, 2022

As per the details shared by the government last month, all frontline and healthcare workers, along with the 60-plus population with comorbidities will be eligible for the additional jab. However, a minimum time period of 39 weeks should have lapsed since the date when the second dose was administered to them.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

Show